


After the Lake

by OverlyCheerfulRat



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Brain Damage, Gen, I'm calling his sister Katherine, Near Drowning, caretaker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 18:23:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17492942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OverlyCheerfulRat/pseuds/OverlyCheerfulRat
Summary: Jack's stepfather pulls him from the frozen lake before he drowns, but not before oxygen deprivation takes its toll.





	After the Lake

It was Thomas who pulled him out of the lake. Thomas, the local blacksmith, their stepfather, who had never much liked either of them, was the one who dove into the freezing water after Jack and carried his trembling body to the house. Katherine had run back to their home, screaming that the ice broke and Jack fell in, and Thomas was out the door before she even got there. 

It was their mother who wrapped him in blankets and set him near the fire. She had warned them to be careful, told them to stick to the sides of the lake. Jack hadn’t listened, he never listened, and look what it cost him. 

It was Katherine who hovered nearby, anxious, clutching her corn husk doll and praying more earnestly than she ever had before. The closest doctor was two towns over, and by the time he arrived Jack was breathing steadily again. He still didn’t wake up, and their mother whispered that he might never wake up, but the doctor assured her that he would. “He might not be the same. I don’t know how long he was in the water…”

And Jack did wake up.

It was always Katherine then, Katherine who saw his empty eyes, who helped him walk, who wiped the drool from his chin, who loved her brother still. Thomas muttered that Jack was gone, their mother cried for him at night, and the neighbors whispered that it would have been kinder to let him drown. Katherine ignored them all. 

It was sunny days that drew them outside, Katherine leading her older brother by the hand. They would spend hours sitting on the ground and playing with corn husk dolls, something Katherine had outgrown but Jack seemed to enjoy. She had learned to turn her back on the village children, who mocked her brother openly. Once, a girl named Martha pasted a blank expression on her face and twisted her hands in her hair, while the others pointed at Jack and laughed hysterically. Katherine shrieked an expression she had heard from Thomas, and got a bar of soap in her mouth in return. 

It was Katherine who wrapped her hands around Jack’s neck. He was so small, smaller than she was. It had been four years since the lake. Jack was eighteen now, almost nineteen, and while he had been slight at fourteen, he seemed tiny now. Katherine could pick him up too easily. He hardly struggled at all, and when Katherine told their mother that Jack had simply stopped breathing, she ignored the obvious bruises.

It was Katherine who visited Jack’s grave every day after, and it was Katherine who died there decades later.

It was Jack who greeted her with open arms in the next life.


End file.
